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If you have SQL Server and SharePoint on the same server, and you intend to put TFS on that same server, then you might be able to use the TFS standard installation wizard. It’s designed to streamline the number of decisions you have to make during TFS installation. You have to have SQL Server set up on the default instance. We won’t cover the steps for installing TFS using the standard wizard in this book because it’s only a few screens. We will cover the advanced wizard. If you’re okay with the default TFS options, by all means use the standard wizard. If you use the advanced wizard and don’t change any of the default settings, you will end up with the exact same TFS installation as if you had used the standard wizard.

If you want more control over installation options, use the advanced configuration.

What Will I Need?

Whether you use standard or advanced TFS install wizards, you’ll need (at least) a single domain account for the report reader account. TFS uses this account to generate reports. If you installed SharePoint, we used this same account for the Farm Admin account in SharePoint.

TIP: The report reader account only needs the Allow log on locally permission, which all domain accounts have by default.

Why Use Advanced?

If you want to change the default installation options for Team Foundation Server, use the advanced configuration, which lets you configure Team Foundation Server on multiple servers and change many other options.

Why use advanced? The standard installation might not fit your needs. You might want to customize a single server installation or install Team Foundation Server and its configuration database on different servers. Perhaps you already have SQL Server or SharePoint Products running in your organization and you’d like to use one of these installations to host team projects or the data for Team Foundation Server. If you use the optional features that require prerequisite server software, these installations can also be hosted on different servers. If you use multiple servers, you can distribute the load between Team Foundation Server and the configuration database, or you can ensure that prerequisite server software for features such as reporting or the portal site is running on capable hardware.

Don’t confuse the multiple server installation with the robust scale-out features that Team Foundation Server offers. These scale-out features include the ability to create a Team Foundation Server farm and add a team project collection to an instance of SQL Server that was not part of the original deployment of Team Foundation Server. However, these scale-out features are not part of this scenario. This scenario offers you guidance for an initial deployment of Team Foundation Server that takes advantage of configurable installation options, such as installing TFS on more than one server. For more information about how to add an application-tier server to your deployment of Team Foundation Server, see How to: Create a Team Foundation Server Farm (High Availability).

TIP: A multiple-server installation requires an Active Directory domain and domain accounts or the Network Service account. You cannot use local accounts for service accounts.

Required permissions

To install TFS, you must be a member of the Windows Administrators security group.

To run any of the TFS configure wizards, you must be a member of the Windows Administrators security group on the server on which you will install Team Foundation Server. If you plan to configure reporting, you must also be a member of the Windows Administrators security group on the server that is running SQL Server Reporting Services. If you plan to configure SharePoint Products, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators group on the SharePoint Products administration site. If you did not install the Database Engine that will host the configuration database or a database administrator manages the instance of SQL Server that you are using, you must be a member of sysadmin Server role in SQL Server.

* In Server Database Label, type a label string, which is then embedded into all three of the default database names. This technique enables you to use a single instance of SQL Server to host multiple configuration databases.

* Select the Use pre-existing empty database(s) check box, and then specify databases that are hosted on the server that is named in SQL Server Instance. You must create names for these databases by using the default naming structure, with or without a label. You can find the default naming structure under Team Foundation Server Databases.

* Choose Test to test the connectivity to SQL Server.

4) Under Service Account, choose Use a system account to use a built-in account.

Otherwise, choose Use a user account to use a domain or local account. If you are using a user account, you must type the password. To test the user account and password combination, you can optionally choose Test. Network Service is the default value for this service account.

Otherwise choose Negotiate (Kerberos) and then choose Next. If you choose NTLM, NTLM authentication is used. This option is the default setting. If you choose Negotiate (Kerberos), Kerberos authentication is attempted first. If that attempt fails, NTLM authentication is used.

6) Under Web Site, you can use the default value in Port. This the port number used to connect to Team Foundation Server. The default value is 8080.

7) Under IIS Virtual Directory, you can use the default value of tfs or optionally type a virtual directory name.

8) Under Web Site, note the Team Foundation Server site URL, which is dynamically assembled based on your input in Web Site and IIS Virtual Directory. Clients use this URL to connect to Team Foundation Server. Choose Next.

On a client operating system, you must skip to step 11. You can’t add a portal or reporting (steps 9 and 10) on a client operating system.

9) Select the Configure Reporting for use with Team Foundation Server check box to use reporting, or clear the check box to skip reporting, and then choose Next.

A) Type the name of the server that is running SQL Server Reporting Services in Reporting Services Instance and choose Populate URLs. The URLs for the report server and its management site appear in the drop-down lists for Report Server URL and Report Manager URL.

B) Ensure the values displayed are the URLs that you want to use for Team Foundation Server and choose Next.

C) Type the name of the server that is running SQL Server Analysis Services in SQL Analysis Services Instance and choose Next. To test the connectivity to SQL Server, you can optionally choose Test.

D) Type the name and password of the report reader account and choose Next.

If you specified a user account for the service account of Team Foundation Server in step 4, you must select the Use a different account than the Team Foundation Server service account for the report reader account check box to use a different account. To test the user account and password combination, you can optionally choose Test.

10) Select the Configure SharePoint Products for use with Team Foundation Server check box to use SharePoint Products, or clear the check box to skip SharePoint Products. Choose Next.

If you selected the check box to configure SharePoint Products, you get a screen with two options. Choose Use the default SharePoint location if you’ve installed and configured SharePoint on the server where you’re installing TFS and choose Next.

Other possible options for SharePoint:

If you’ve installed SharePoint on a remote server, you can click Specify a SharePoint location. On the next screen you’ll enter the Site and Administration URLs for SharePoint farm you want to integrate with TFS. You’ll want to read the section on setting up a remote SharePoint site for TFS. See, What If I Already Have SharePoint?

TIP: If you’re installing on Windows Server 2008 or R2, you get an option to install SharePoint Foundation 2010. Once the installation completes, type a user account and password for the service account for SharePoint Foundation 2010. If you specified a user account for the service account of Team Foundation Server in step 4, you must select the Use a different account than the Team Foundation Server service account for the SharePoint farm check box to use a different account.

11) Select the Create a new team project collection check box to create a collection, or clear that check box to skip that step. If you create a collection, accept the default values, or type a new name and description. Choose Next.

12) On the Review page, review the settings, and choose Next.

The wizard validates your configuration.

If you run into a problem, you can use the detailed results to identify the issue. If you can fix it, click the link to run the checks again.

13) After you pass all the checks, choose Configure. The wizard applies configuration settings. This process might take several minutes.

14) At the success screen, choose Next.

15) Review the results of the success screen, including the connection URL for TFS and any details about the installation. Choose Close.

In the TFS Configuration Center, note that TFS extensions for SharePoint have already been installed, if you installed TFS and SharePoint on the same server.

After you close the TFS Configuration Center, the Team Foundation Server Administration Console appears.

In this post, we’re going to install SharePoint Server 2013 on the same server as TFS and SQL Server.

We’re going to install SharePoint after we install SQL Server, so that we can use the same Database Engine instance we installed for TFS for our SharePoint deployment (although using the same SQL Server instance for both SharePoint and TFS is certainly not a requirement).

In most single-server TFS installations, you would simply use the TFS installer to setup SharePoint. However, TFS 2012 comes with SharePoint Foundation 2010, which is not compatible with Windows Server 2012. So we’re going to have to manually install a version of SharePoint compatible with Windows Server 2012.

TIP: Installing SharePoint on the same server as TFS isn’t a requirement. TFS is very flexible with regard to the topology of your SharePoint installation. See What If I Already Have SharePoint?

Do I Even Need SharePoint?

Maybe. SharePoint is a collaboration website product that offers deep integration with Office productivity products like Word, Outlook and Excel. Although it’s not a TFS requirement, some teams do find its features useful. SharePoint is different from the Team Web Access site that comes with TFS. Team Web Access is a web site that mirrors Visual Studio features and offers functionality for certain specialized team collaborations that have to do with creating software projects. You get Team Web Access by default when you install TFS.

What Will I Need?

Assuming you still want SharePoint in your TFS deployment, you’ll need a single domain account to act as the TFS Report Reader account. TFS uses this account to generate reports. We’re going to use the report reader account that way too, but we’ll also put it to use as the Farm Administrator account for our SharePoint installation, just as TFS would do during the standard install of TFS on Windows Server 2008 or R2.

TIP: Don’t put the report reader account in the Windows Administrators security group. It just needs the Allow log on locally permission, which all domain accounts have by default.

Free SharePoint vs. Paid-For SharePoint

For each version of SharePoint, Microsoft delivers a free version and a paid-for version with additional functionality. TFS always comes with one of the free versions. However, we support both versions and the instructions for installing either on Windows Server 2012 are very similar and included in this guide.

If you use SharePoint Server, as we are going to in this guide, you must make a few SharePoint configurations after you install SharePoint (and before you install TFS) to enable TFS dashboard functionality on your SharePoint installation. If you install the free version, you can skip the dashboard configurations. You’ll still get some dashboard functionality, but not as much as if you had the paid-for version of SharePoint.

What If I Already Have SharePoint?

If your existing SharePoint installation meets the TFS requirements for SharePoint, you can certainly use your existing installation of SharePoint for TFS. Make sure it meets the SharePoint requirements for TFS.

Required Permissions

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Windows Administrators security group on the computer where you install SharePoint Products and where you host its databases.

To install SharePoint 2013 Products for TFS

Whatever SharePoint 2013 product you’re installing, you should first run the SharePoint 2013 Products preparation tool. After you prepare the server, install SharePoint, and then do the post installation configuration tasks appropriate for the product you just installed.

Remember that you’ll need a single domain account to act as the TFS Report Reader account to install SharePoint Server 2013. See What Will I Need?

4) On the license agreement page, accept the terms of the license and choose Next.

Depending on the state of your computer, the installer might prompt you to restart the machine. Follow any instructions.

Upon resume after a restart, you may have to run the SharePoint Products prep tool again, if it doesn’t start automatically. Keep running it (performing the previous four steps for manual restarts) until you get a success message.

5) At completion, choose Finish.

Run the SharePoint installation

Once the SharePoint Products Perpetration tool completes, you might have to launch the SharePoint installer again, especially if you had to restart your computer.

Remember that you’ll need a single domain account to act as the TFS Report Reader account to complete this section. See What Will I Need?

You can use the randomly generated port number, but Team Foundation Server has always used 17012 as the port for the SharePoint Products administration site.

13) Choose NTLM and then Next.

14) Review the information, and then choose Next.

Configuration begins.

15) Choose Finish.

Once the installation routine finishes, it launches the SharePoint administration site, open to the initial configuration wizard.

Run the SharePoint Configuration wizards

No matter which version of SharePoint you install, you must run the SharePoint Configuration wizard. Special instructions appear in step 3 if you’re installing the Enterprise edition of SharePoint Server 2013.

If you’re installing the Standard edition of SharePoint Server 2013 or SharePoint Foundation, none of the listed services are required, but you must run the wizard to succeed with your TFS installation. Even if you select no services, SharePoint will configure a site collection and some other services.

Select any services you want to set up. Unselect any you don’t want set up.

SharePoint selects all of them by default.

TIP: Remember that you can always come back later to run the configuration wizards, but you have to run it once after the SharePoint installation to succeed with your TFS installation.

4) Choose Next.

3) Type a Title and choose Next.

4) Choose Finish.

Configure Excel Services (SharePoint Server 2013 only)

For TFS reports to operate correctly, you must also configure a trusted file location for Excel Services.

8) In Specify the credential fields for your Secure Store Target Application, choose Next to accept the default settings for the credential fields.

9) In Target Application Administrators, type the administrative account for the application.

10) In Members, enter the global security group from the domain that contains all the users to whom you want to grant access to dashboards and reports in Team Foundation Server, and then choose OK.

11) On the Secure Store Service Application page, select the check box for the target application that you just created (named TFS if you used the naming guidance that was provided earlier in this topic), and then choose Set Credentials in the ribbon.

12) In the Set Credentials for Secure Store Target Application (Group) dialog box, enter the name and password, confirm the password of the report reader account for Team Foundation Server, and then choose OK.

This paper provides information about command-line, or unattended, installation for Team Foundation Server 2012. It guides TFS administrators through the process of pre-setting and deploying a configuration of TFS. The paper assumes that the reader is familiar with the basics of the TFS configuration process.